Effective Mathematics Placement Testing Strategies: A Study of Mathematics Placement Test Retake Policy at a Two-Year Public Community College in Florida

Abstract:

Placement testing in college is important partly because initial placement
recommendations may be followed by further placement recommendations based on
retakes of the placement test. This study examines a particular mathematics retake policy
at a community college in Florida which allows students to retest on the mathematics
placement test every 90 days. As a result, students may be placed into a particular course
and then retake the placement test before the semester ends. It is an increasingly known
practice among students that if their retake placement scores place them in a higher
course, students sometimes withdraw from their current course and take the higher level
course the following semester – without finishing the course into which they were
originally placed.
Analysis of the data collected reveals that students who retake the placement
exam and test into a subsequent developmental course do worse in the subsequent course
than those students who initially placed into that higher level course. Although a
relatively small number of students retake the placement test, the study further shows that
most of those students do not perform better as a result of the placement retake, and the
number that performs better is insignificant. These findings are based on analysis of the
sample proportions.
Recommendations include changing the college’s retake policies. The most
significant recommendation permits retakes only before initial enrollment, suggests
placing students based on the average of their pre-enrollment placement and retake(s)
scores, and defines a stricter time limit on how long placement scores are accepted. The
recommendations can serve as an example for other colleges nationwide.